One way of reducing landfill waste is to recover recyclable metal from refuse items. The metal from items like automobiles, major appliances, etc., can be recovered by shredding processes, in which the items are shredded by hammermill action into pieces of a workable size that are passed through apparatus, such as magnetic separators and air separation systems, to separate metal from the synthetic foam, fabric, rubber, stone, dirt and so on, also incorporated within the waste items. The metal recovered from the shredding process can, of course, be reused. The substantially non-metallic residue by-product is usually referred to as "automobile shredder residue" (ASR) or "shredder fluff".
An interim or daily landfill cover is a layer of material that is spread over refuse typically at the end of each day. The purpose of the cover is to contain the refuse; i.e., it keeps the refuse from being picked up by wind; it presents a barrier to rodents, birds and other vectors that might scavenge or burrow into the refuse; it contains odors; and, importantly, it provides a barrier that isolates the refuse from sources in the environment that could ignite the refuse and, should a fire occur internally within a layer of refuse from one day, the cover inhibits the spread of the fire to adjacent layers of refuse that were disposed on previous or subsequent days.